Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh [104]
The steward approached. 'Your usual, sir? Whisky and tepid water, I think. And for the lady? Might I suggest a nip of champagne?'
'D'you know, the awful thing is I would like champagne very much,' said Julia. 'What a life of pleasure—roses, half an hour with a female pugilist, and now champagne!'
'I wish you wouldn't go on about the roses. It wasn't my idea in the first place. Someone sent them to Celia.'
'Oh, that 's quite different. It lets you out completely. But it makes my massage worse.'
'I was shaved in bed.'
'I'm glad about the roses,' said Julia. 'Frankly, they were a shock. They made me think we were starting the day on the wrong foot.'
I knew what she meant, and in that moment felt as though I had shaken off some of the dust and grit of ten dry years; then and always, however she spoke to me, in half sentences, single words, stock phrases of contemporary jargon, in scarcely perceptible movements of eyes or lips or hands, however inexpressible her thought, however quick and far it had glanced from the matter in hand, however deep it had plunged, as it often did, straight from the surface to the depths, I knew; even that day when I still stood on the extreme verge of love, I knew what she meant.
We drank our wine and soon our new friend came lurching towards us down the lifeline.
'Mind if I join you? Nothing like a bit of rough weather for bringing people together. This is my tenth crossing, and I've never seen anything like it. I can see you are an experienced sailor, young lady.'
'No. As a matter of fact, I've never been at sea before except coming to New York and, of course, crossing the Channel. I don't feel sick, thank God, but I feel tired. I thought at first it was only the massage, but I'm coming to the conclusion it's the ship.'
'My wife's in a terrible way. She's an experienced sailor. Only shows, doesn't it?'
He joined us at luncheon, and I did not mind his being there; he had clearly taken a fancy to Julia, and he thought we were man and wife; this misconception and his gallantry seemed in some way to bring her and me closer together. 'Saw you two last night at the Captain's table,' he said, 'with all the nobs.'
'Very dull nobs.'
'If you ask me, nobs always are. When you get a storm like this you find out what people are really made of.'
'You have a predilection for good sailors?'
'Well, put like that I don't know that I do—what I mean is, it makes for getting together.'
'Yes.'
'Take us for example. But for this we might never have met. I've had some very romantic encounters at sea in my time. If the lady will excuse me, I'd like to tell you about a little adventure I had in the Gulf of Lions when I was younger than I am now.'
We were both weary; lack of sleep, the incessant din, and the strain every movement required, wore us down. We spent that afternoon apart in our cabins. I slept and when I awoke the sea was as high as ever, inky clouds swept over us, and the glass streamed still with water, but I had grown used to the storm In my sleep, had made its rhythm mine, had become part of it, so that I arose strongly and confidently and found Julia already up and in the same temper.
'What d'you think?' she said. 'That man's giving a little "get together party" tonight in the smoking-room for all the good sailors. He asked me to bring my husband.'
'Are we going?'
'Of course...I wonder if I ought to feel like the lady our friend met on the way to Barcelona. I don't, Charles not a bit.'
There were eighteen people at the 'get-together party'; we had nothing in common except immunity from seasickness. We drank champagne, and presently our host said: 'Tell you what, I've got a roulette wheel. Trouble is we can't go to my cabin on account of the wife, and we aren't allowed to play in public.'
So the party adjourned to my sitting-room and we played for low stakes until late into the night, when Julia left and our host had drunk too much wine to be surprised that she and I were not in the same quarters. When all but he had gone, he fell asleep in his chair, and I left him there. It was the last I saw of him, for later